Image Enhancement with Fusion

1. A method, comprising: receiving visible image data and thermal image data for a scene, wherein the visible image data comprises a plurality of pixels; determining a pixel spread value for each pixel, wherein the pixel spread values provide local smoothness metrics for the visible image data; determining a corresponding gain for each pixel using the pixel spread value determined for the pixel; extracting high spatial frequency content from the visible image data to provide filtered visible image data; applying the corresponding gain determined for each pixel to corresponding pixels of the filtered visible image data to provide weighted visible image data; and merging the weighted visible image data and the thermal image data to provide combined image data.

2. The method of claim 1 , wherein the determining the corresponding gain for each pixel comprises applying a function to the pixel spread values to provide the corresponding gain.

3. The method of claim 2 , wherein the function is a Gaussian function.

4. The method of claim 1 , wherein the extracting comprises applying a high pass spatial filter to the visible image data.

5. The method of claim 1 , further comprising low pass filtering the thermal image data prior to the merging.

6. The method of claim 1 , wherein the merging comprises superimposing the weighted visible image data on the thermal image data.

7. The method of claim 1 , wherein the merging comprises adding a luminance component of the weighted visible image data to the thermal image data.

8. The method of claim 1 , further comprising adding high resolution noise to the combined image data.

9. A system comprising: a non-transitory memory; and one or more hardware processors coupled to the non-transitory memory and configured to read instructions from the non-transitory memory to cause the system to perform operations comprising: receiving visible image data and thermal image data for a scene, wherein the visible image data comprises a plurality of pixels; determining a pixel spread value for each pixel, wherein the pixel spread values provide local smoothness metrics for the visible image data; determining a corresponding gain for each pixel using the pixel spread value determined for the pixel; extracting high spatial frequency content from the visible image data to provide filtered visible image data; applying the corresponding gain determined for each pixel to corresponding pixels of the filtered visible image data to provide weighted visible image data; and merging the weighted visible image data and the thermal image data to provide combined image data.

10. The system of claim 9 , wherein the determining the corresponding gain for each pixel comprises applying a function to the pixel spread values to provide the corresponding gain.

11. The system of claim 10 , wherein the function is a Gaussian function.

12. The system of claim 9 , wherein the extracting comprises applying a high pass spatial filter to the visible image data.

13. The system of claim 9 , wherein the operations further comprise applying a low pass filter to the thermal image data prior to the merging.

14. The system of claim 9 , wherein the merging comprises superimposing the weighted visible image data on the thermal image data.

15. The system of claim 9 , wherein the merging comprises adding a luminance component of the weighted visible image data to the thermal image data.

16. The system of claim 9 , wherein the operations further comprise adding high resolution noise to the combined image data.